Expert says time ripe for return to Gadgil

Thrissur: The monsoon havoc in the high ranges including Idukki could have been avoided had the Gadgil Committee Report been implemented, member of the committee and former chairman of Biodiversity Board Dr V.S. Vijayan has said.

The report had divided the Western Ghats into three zones with restrictions on constructions and cultivation of short-term crops on mountain slopes lying in an angle of more than 30 degrees.

These regions were included in the first and the second zones of the report. It was also recommended to plant trees on these slopes to protect soil erosion.

“Now, I see on television in the past few days the landslides on the same places rest-ricted by the Gadgil panel,” he said.

“I am not claiming that natural disasters could be fully avoided, but the extent of the disaster could have been brought down considerably.”

He further said that Idukki bishop and the political parties were spreading rumours and were engaged in fear mongering when the agitation against the committee was at its peak during 2012-13.

“P. T. Thomas of Congress, (then lawmaker representing Idukki) who took a bold stand in favour of the report had to face the ire of the church and did not contest again,” Mr Vijayan pointed out.

“Joice George,  the legal adviser of High Range Samrakshana Samithi, which was dead against the Gad-gil report, contested and won the elections in 2014 from Idukki. Neither the church nor the MP did suffer due to the monsoon fury. It was the common lot who lost their lives and all their belongings in the landslides and floods.”